I love orzo!

Father Leo of Grace Before Meals rocks! I can't even remember how I stumbled across his blog, but I am so glad that I found it. I've been looking for some easy delicious meals to make now that we are settling in and not eating out every night. Tonight we had Orzo Ginger Chicken. Orzo hasn't been a staple in our kitchen, but after tonight it's going to become a standby. This meal was sooo easy to make and yummy to boot - can't beat that. The recipe serves 2, so do the math to figure out how to suit it to your family. Enjoy!

Join me at the Book-Walk

Cay Gibson, of Catholic Mosaic fame, is releasing her highly anticipated publication - Christmas Mosaic. And she is generously hosting a book-walk (think cake-walk but without the cake and with a book instead!) all day today. Hop on over to Cajun Cottage and enter.

Wonderment

One of the things that I am truly enjoying about being in Florida is the abundance of "boy" stuff to see. The other morning there was a baby lizard crawling around on the apartment door. Every day since then both Brian and Sean ask me to look for the baby lizard when I go to take the dog for a walk. They also love chasing the lizards when we go outside to the car.

Yesterday there was a baby frog (yes, all of these babies seem to be roaming outside our apartment without their mommies - I should call CPS!) on the railing outside. As you can see from the picture, Brian was fascinated by it. I love all these nature learning experiences we're getting.

First "Real" Haircuts

I have struggled and struggled with cutting Brian and Sean's hair. Brian, once I started using the clippers, actually did pretty well. But Sean, well, that's a whole other story. I tried bribing them with lollipops to distract them during the cut. Once again, Brian kept his nicely in his mouth while mommy trimmed him up. Sean's lollipop was covered in hair and snot. It took 2 of us to cut his hair as Chris had to basically pin him against his shirt while I tried to rapidly trim the hair. Many times we ended up with either a "too short in the back" experience, or a "slightly uneven" one.

I finally bit the bullet and took them to a salon. But not just any salon - oh no. We went to Snip-its. This lovely establishment was created for kids. When we walked in, Brian and Sean were given an Adventure Card that they were told to hold on to. When we went back for the haircuts, there are seats for mommy right next to their chairs. They were strapped in, draped, and ready to go. While the stylist cuts the child's hair, there are movies playing (or for an older child - computer games), lollipops and wonderful stylists who are so gentle and calm.

There were no tears, no snotty lollipops, nothing. Well, nothing except super cute haircuts!

And did I forget to mention the lovely green...
and blue highlights?
I was reassured that they wash out.

House Progress

I have been meaning to post on the progress of our new home and since the pictures I take are large in size (and I don't know how to resize them) I thought I would take everyone on a pictorial tour of the progress that's been made on our future home.

The form boards go up - should be about 90 days from this point that we close!

Foundation is poured!

The cement blocks are ready to build the first floor...

And now we have our first floor!

And the second story is up!

View from the "foyer" - roof joists

View from my future kitchen window - well, minus the sink, countertops, cabinets, window panes, a nice valance, window sill, a pool out back and grass - but you get the picture!

Side view of the house

Back of the house

This is today's shot - at least from the morning. They are working on the front elevation - see the right side of the picture. As of this afternoon (according to Chris), they had put tar paper on almost all of the roof!

More pictures will follow as I get them. We are so excited about our new house and can't wait until it's complete so that we can make it a home.